Product Description

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Flying together on a storm-ravaged night is gifted surgeon Dr. Ben Payne, who is facing an agonizing separation from his wife, and Ashley Knox, a young magazine writer en route to her wedding. When their plane crashes in a frigid and remote mountain wilderness, Ashley and Ben are plunged into a life or death struggle. As the days turn to weeks on the unforgiving mountain, the two heal from their physical wounds, even as they are forced to confront surprising and painful truths. These intimate conversations and their dependence on each other create an extraordinary bond.

Publisher's Description

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Now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet and Idris Elba

From the author of Where the River Ends, comes this page-turning story of love and survival.

On a stormy winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake City airport. Ashley Knox is an attractive, successful writer, who is flying East for her much anticipated wedding. Dr. Ben Payne has just wrapped up a medical conference and is also eager to get back East for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following day. When the last outgoing flight is cancelled due to a broken de-icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in Denver to catch a connection. And when the pilot says the single engine prop plane can fit one more, if barely, Ben offers the seat to Ashley knowing that she needs to get back just as urgently. And then the unthinkable happens. The pilot has a heart attack mid-flight and the plane crashes into the High Uintas Wilderness-- one of the largest stretches of harsh and remote land in the United States.

Ben, who has broken ribs and Ashley, who suffers a terrible leg fracture, along with the pilot's dog, are faced with an incredibly harrowing battle to survive. Fortunately, Ben is a medical professional and avid climber (and in a lucky break, has his gear from a climb earlier in the week). With little hope for rescue, he must nurse Ashley back to health and figure out how they are going to get off the mountain, where the temperature hovers in the teens. Meanwhile, Ashley soon realizes that the very private Ben has some serious emotional wounds to heal as well. He explains to Ashley that he is separated from his beloved wife, but in a long standing tradition, he faithfully records messages for her on his voice recorder reflecting on their love affair. As Ashley eavesdrops on Ben's tender words to his estranged wife she comes to fear that when it comes to her own love story, she's just settling. And what's more: she begins to realize that the man she is really attracted to, the man she may love, is Ben.

As the days on the mountains become weeks, their survival become increasingly perilous. How will they make it out of the wilderness and if they do, how will this experience change them forever?

Both a tender and page-turning read, The Mountain Between Us will reaffirm your belief in the power of love to sustain us.

Author Bio

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Charles Martin is the author of seven novels. He and his family live in Jacksonville, Florida.

Discussion Questions

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About This Guide...

A letter from the author:

Dear Reader,Im a fifth-generation Florida boy. Born and raised. Im used to heat and sunshine. Put me in the snow and I turn into a total wimp. About a year ago, I was sitting in a plane at thirty-five thousand feet flying to Oregon, looked down upon Utahs snow-covered mountainsnot a lightbulb in sightand wondered, "What if &hellip;" By the time the plane landed, Id scratched the following:

What if a plane crashed into that mess?What if it was a small plane carrying two total strangers? What if he was happily married, headed home to his wife? What if she was headed home to her rehearsal dinner and a white dress? What if they were hurt?And what if they could expect no rescue?

Months later, two friends and I traveled to the High Uintas Mountainsa wilderness spanning more than a million acres. If you ever saw Jeremiah Johnson, thats where they filmed it. Average snowfall is 500 to 700 inches a year. Sometimes more. To me, its more Mars than Earth.

We rented snowmobiles and rode some sixty miles into the middle of that beautiful, magnificent, unforgiving landscape. The second night, at about two a.m., I lay staring up at a star-lit sky, thinking about my two characters. In the dark, my fingers cold, my breath blowing like smoke, the snow just beginning to fall, our fire reduced to glowing red embers, I scratched the last question:

What if things are not what they seem?

The Mountain Between Us is the story of an orthopedic surgeon from Jacksonville headed home after a medical conference. Waiting at the gate in the Salt Lake City aAirport, he meets a journalist from Atlanta making her way home to her six brides maids and a rehearsal dinner. Like everyone else in the airport, they are trying to outrun the storm that is inching ever closer. When the de-icer breaks, effectively killing their chances of beating the storm, they hire a charter to hop them to Denver. Standing in their way, rising some twelve thousand feet above sea level, are the High Uintas.

On the surface its a story of survivalof impossible circumstancesand the man and woman who face it. Beneath that, its a story of laughter, hope, brokenness, friendship, and a tender love risked by few and shared by even less.I hope you enjoy it.

My best to you,Charles

For more information about this and Charles Martins other novels, visit CharlesMartinBooks.com.

Share your thoughts on this book on Charless Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/author.charles.martin

The following discussion topics and author interviewletter are designed to enhance your reading of Charles Martins The Mountain Between Us. We hope they will enrich your experience as you explore this captivating novel of extraordinary love.

Questions and Answers...

1. The Mountain Between Us is an adventure story, a story of survivial, but and above all a love story. By the end of the novel, what do we learn about the authors views of love? Is there such a thing as a perfect marriage? What do Ben and Ashley learn from the pilot, Grover, about the nature of enduring love? Is that a lesson that stays with them throughout the book? In your experience, does marriage get better? What makes a great marriage?

2. After the crash, Ben and Ashley are stranded at 11,500 feet, fifty miles from any kind of civilization with no hope of rescue, she with a broken leg, he with three busted ribs and a possible collapsed lung, and minimal supplies &hellip; yet they survived for more than four weeks in these extreme conditions. What skills and character traits do you think helped ensure their survival? Did you find the story credible?

3. Was Ben to blame at any point for what happened? Should he have hired the charter plane to take them out in the coming storm? During their time on the mountain, what choices did Ben make? Do you believe he made the right choices? What would you have done in his place?

4. We learn about Bens wife mostly through the recordings she made on Bens dDictaphone. Is she a strong presence in the book? What kind of person was she? What made her so special to Ben?

5. Ben refers to himself as "a bit of an emotional blockhead" (page 119). Why do you think he finds it so difficult to come to terms with his "separation" from his wife, Rachel? What part did his childhood experiences play in his emotional development?

6. In the most difficult times on the mountain, when Ashley and Ben are losing hope of survival, how do they keep themselves going? What was the most difficult part of their ordeal? If you were in their position, what would you have done? Do you think you would have made it back home alive?

7. How does Ben and Ashleys time in isolation on the mountain change their perspective on life? Does it make them see any more clearly? Are their lives irrevocably changed by the experience? In what ways?

8. Were you surprised by the revelation about Bens family life at the end of the book? How did the discovery make you feel? Looking back through the book, haddid the author layid any clues for the reader along the way?

9. 9)Ben uses his Dictaphone to communicate with his wife. What do you learn about Rachel from his recordings? Do you think this technique works as a narrative device? What does it wsay about the way we communicate with our loved ones today? Why did Ben throw the dDictaphone into the ocean at the end of the book?

10. What is the significance of the title? What is "the mountain between us"?

11. In the authors note, Charles references one of the most beautiful Bible verses: I lift my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come &hellip; What part does religious faith play in this novel? Do you think the authors own optimism is derived from his faith in God?

Sometimes I am amazed when I read Charles Martin's books that some of my thoughts and feelings are not unique to me. Each of his books have taken me on a journey of self discovery and I finish each with a little more understanding of others as well as of myself.

I can't say enough about this book. I loved it, and it moved me to tears and laughter. There's a tenderness to the writing that's balanced with humor. I've read it several times, and each time, it makes me want to be a better person, to love better and more deeply.

I loved this book. I was surprised at Ben's actual story near the end of the book. Impossible to put down. A good story of commitment and how we sometimes make choices and never realize what the consequences will turn out to be. It teaches us to think before we speak, what if these were the last words my loved one ever hears from me?